Honda / Acura Tidbits

[Mitlov]

I can’t remember seeing an ad for a WRX on TV….or any Impreza.

Likewise, Subaru doesn't advertise the Legacy at all, as far as I can tell.  At least not in the States.  Forester, Outback, and Tribeca ads are on TV all the time, but I've never seen a single Impreza or Legacy ad.

[airbalancer]

Just another example of people saying one thing and doing another. If people were asked if their car buying decision was affected by advertising, I bet over 90% would claim that they were independant thinkers and weren't influenced by ads.

That would go up to 100% for forum regulars. 

Would anyone in the world by a Yaris hatch after seeing their ads?? 

Did the professor make a mistake Must be a typo error

[Bullet Blue]

Yeah I haven't seen an Acura CL ad in a long time  

Actually I don't remember seeing any Fit ads before we bought it. I only remember seeing them after we bought it. Once again, I must set the trends..

[safristi]

was THAT ...TRAIN    named after ya TOO................................"Lionel".... HORNEY 00  #1 wif a BULLET............squeeze In.....

[Cord]

Apparently Civic sales are plummeting in Canada too. This article cites a 20% drop in Civic sales and a 25% increase in Mazda 3 sales compared to February 2006.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/BUSINESS01/70315014/1014

[Mitlov]

Apparently Civic sales are plummeting in Canada too. This article cites a 20% drop in Civic sales and a 25% increase in Mazda 3 sales compared to February 2006.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070315/BUSINESS01/70315014/1014

All the Star Trek fans bought the new Civic its first year, and no one else can stomach the interior design

[JSCC]

Easy solution for Honda:

Add a 5 door hatch with the CSX engine and break the 80,000 civic/year record!

[Mitlov]

Easy solution for Honda:

Add a 5 door hatch with the CSX engine and break the 80,000 civic/year record!

I think bringing the Stream over, at least to Canada, would be a good idea.  I don't think it would sell in the States though.

http://paultan.org/archives/2006/06/18/2007-honda-stream-photos/

[mwqa]

Last year around this time Honda announced that they were cutting production of the U.S. Fit (from 50,000 to around 40,000 units) to shift factory capacity to making more Civics for the global market.

Maybe this year they'll be able increase Fit production because of the drop in Civic sales. That would be good news as far as I'm concerned. 

[tpl]

The availability of manual transmission LX Fits has gone from 2-3 months to  "less than a month unless you are really unlucky"

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Honda's Indiana plant will start with Civics
Automaker will begin hiring for 2,000 jobs this fall

Ralph Kisiel  |  Automotive News / March 19, 2007 - 2:44 pm

GREENSBURG, Ind. -- The Honda Civic sedan is the first vehicle that will be built in Honda Motor Co.'s new $550 million plant here, Honda confirmed today.

But the plant's assembly line will be flexible, and other vehicles will be added, said Jeffrey Smith, assistant vice president of American Honda Motor Co. Inc. Other vehicles will be announced in the fall of 2008, when the plant is scheduled to open.

Market demand will determine which vehicles the plant will build, Smith said today at a groundbreaking ceremony. The site is about 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis.

Smith said Honda will begin hiring this fall for the 2,000 jobs at Greensburg. Those workers will be trained at Honda plants in Ohio, he said. Honda already has advertised 18 skilled-worker positions at Greensburg and has received more than 6,000 applications, Smith said.

When the Greensburg plant opens, Honda will have three plants in North America building the Civic.

Today, Honda builds Civics in East Liberty, Ohio, and the No. 1 plant in Alliston, Ontario. Civic output will be added to the Alliston No. 2 plant in April.

[sirAQUAMAN64]

Honda will make CR-Vs in Mexico

Ralph Kisiel  |  Automotive News / March 22, 2007 - 4:57 pm   

Honda Motor Co. will begin building the CR-V crossover at its assembly plant in Guadalajara, Mexico, this fall.

Honda plans to build 50,000 CR-Vs in the plant in 2008.

The plant now produces about 30,000 Accord sedans annually for Mexico and Latin American countries. Accord production will end there so the plant can produce only CR-Vs in the fall.

"We are switching that plant entirely over to the CR-V," says David Iida, a Honda spokesman in Detroit. "This move is based on consumer demand for these small crossovers."

This marks the second plant in North America to build the CR-V. Honda added the vehicle to its East Liberty, Ohio, plant in September -- the first time it has been made in North America.

About 25,000 of the CR-Vs to be produced in Mexico will be sold there, while the other half will be made for the United States and Latin America, Iida says.

Honda of America Manufacturing Inc. has not given a target production figure for the CR-V in Ohio. But during its four-month ramp-up in East Liberty late last year, Honda built 7,111 CR-Vs. The company has built an additional 6,958 CR-Vs in East Liberty in the first two months of 2007.

Honda has spent $8 million to prepare the Mexico plant for CR-V production. Employment at the plant, now at 1,400, will increase to 2,000 when it reaches full production.

Production of Accords for Mexico and Latin America will shift to Honda's plant in Marysville, Ohio.

[Mitlov]

Will the Mexican-built CRVs be sold in the United States and Canada, or just in Latin America?

[hondasalesguy]

From the post immediately above yours, by SirAqua:

About 25,000 of the CR-Vs to be produced in Mexico will be sold there, while the other half will be made for the United States and Latin America, Iida says.

All CR-Vs sold here will be built in Ohio.

[tpl]

From the Financial pest today.

Honda Canada Inc. is "seriously considering" stripping some life-saving safety equipment out of the smallest car it sells in Canada to meet new federal fuel efficiency ratings.

The Honda Fit does not qualify for a $1,000 rebate under the new rules, announced in the federal budget two weeks ago, while the Yaris, produced by rival Toyota Motor Corp., does.

The difference can be explained by the extra air bags, side curtains, antilock brakes and other equipment the Fit has but the Yaris does not, says Jim Miller, executive vice-president of Honda Canada.
"If we stripped all that out it would qualify," Mr. Miller told a University of Windsor marketing class. "But $1,000 for a human life?"

The Fit consumes 6.5 litres of fuel every 100 kilometres, which is the cutoff point for the new federal incentive to buy fuel-efficient cars. The Yaris consumes 6.3 l/km and qualifies for the money.

Most of the subcompact cars on the Canadian market, which account for more than half of all sales in this country, achieve mileage similar to the Fit.

Honda, which prides itself on the tiny Fit's five-star U.S. crash safety rating,doesn't want to trade safety for sales, Mr. Miller told about 80 students and area automotive business people. But it might have to.

"Do we give that up? I don't think, from a corporate social responsibility point of view, we should," he said of the five-star rating.

"But obviously to remain competitive we're giving it serious consideration." He said Honda can't afford to walk away from as many as 20,000 units of sales in a crucial segment of the business, handing them to its most important competitor.

Honda doesn't lose many sales to the Detroit Big Three, mainly Toyota, he said. "It's going to have an impact" on Honda's sales, he said of the federal incentives, although it is too early to tell how much.

Mr. Miller said the federal government's new green levies, or "feebates" as some have called its new taxes and rebates, may be too arbitrary to have the desired environmental effects on the marketplace.

Toyota, whose customers some analysts say stand to pick up the bulk of rebates from the new federal program, is the only automaker that has wholeheartedly endorsed the budget announcement. Stephen Beatty, managing director of Toyota Canada Inc., told the same University of Windsor class the company was delighted with the federal budget provisions.
.................................. copyright National Post 2007 ....................

I wonder how many sales they will lose if they DO remove the side and curtain bags and the ABS.  The existance of those esp ABS did factor into our decision to buy a Fit

[airbalancer]

Probably not many sales, most people in that class only look at price
If the Years does have , that is what people will look at
Or will Honda offer a strip down Fit without the safety features

[safristi]

they'll have ta re_name it tha (S)HIT  then..............

[Cord]

So Honda would like to do the right thing but competitive pressures just won't let them? Why does everyone let Honda off the hook when they come up with such self-serving, bean counter driven ideas? Where's all the "if it saves one life it's worth the cost" comments? I thought companies like Honda were all about high quality and long term thinking. Could it truly be that they really consider their own bottom line before their customers' personal safety?

[safristi]

Of course they do Cord otherwise NO HONDA...too simple fer ya...if yer MAJOR competitor gets a FREEBIE $1000 BONUS from some dweeeb POLITICAL LAME BRAIN..ya gonna sit down and take it......THEY (the POLS ) are SUP_HOSED TO SERVE US. ..and this little "green dance" serves NO ONE BUT THEMSELVES (they HOPE)  I HOPE it backfires...and all the folk that wanted another sub_)compact COMPLAIN to the GOV (FAT CHANCE eh!! being Canada..we are too Fat and complacent and will ASK is there another HOLE ya'd like ta FACK_US_UP.......................sigh

[sirAQUAMAN64]

That would be a real shame because I think the Fit is the better product, but in such a cost conscious market, they will lose sales. If they made they stripped only the base model or spread the cost savings on the components for the base model to slightly reduce the upper trim prices could be okay.